TAMPA, FL….2/3/11…. Jared Landers, of Clemmons NC, kicked off the 35th Anniversary Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park Thursday night in convincing fashion by finally earning his first checkered flag here after coming close several times in the past in Open Wheel Modified competition.

This time he was not to be denied the 25-lap victory by a margin of four seconds on opening night of the 12th Annual Open Wheel Modified series was worth $1,500 and served as the first of two preliminary nights leading up to Saturday’s 75-lap $5,000 to win finale.

The race got off to a shakey start when Jeff Mathews got in trouble on the front stretch and brought out the yellow before a lap was completed. Then on the next attempt, Landers got into pole-sitter Chad Kinder in turn four before a lap was completed bringing out another yellow. Landers squeeked through and Kinder was done for the night.

Piloting his own Shaw chassis sponsored by Mark Martin Chevrolet/Ford, Mullins Race Engines and Clint Boyer Racing, that he has raced here before, Landers admitted, “I couldn’t find my guy that was to give me signals, so I just kept searching the race track for the fastest groove and figured I was doing OK until somebody poked me.”

“I was kind of rusty because I hadn’t driven in two months, but my guys Matt Cooper, Donnie and Ben Ledgerwood made a bunch of changes and we got better through the night. We are using Integra Shocks and Springs this year and they did their job.”

“This is the first year my son Madden and my wife Jessica couldn’t make the trip. I wish they could have been here for my win.”

A lot of passing made for exciting three-wide racing at times as drivers came from deep in the pack to crack the top ten. Corey Conley nailed down second spot after a red flag on lap 15 and he used the inside lane in turn three to pass Rick Hensley for the runner-up spot. Conley proudly explains that his engine is built by his daddy Ed in the basement of his house and that his Shaw is last year’s version. Eric, “Big” Vinny and his girl friend Carrie are the main helpers on his car. He mentioned Wheeling Auto Body as a main sponsor and thanked Jeff Mathews for all his help locally. He gave credit to Hoosier Tires and Shaw “Two Brother Motorsports Dealer”.

Equally impressive was the drive by Rodney Wing who came from 20th to third in Jeff Mathews brand new Shaw car. Wing feels that Mathews “holds the key to the whole deal” because he has his own car set up just the way he likes it and felt that Wing should be in the new car. Sponsors on the car are Night Hawk Towing, CURS (Credit Union Remarketing Solutions) and Buddy’s Home Furnishing. Wing was a Regional Promoter of the year last year for his efforts at Whynot Motorsports Park in Meridian MS.

Hensley started sixth and finished fourth while Devin Dixon came from 12th to cross the finish line in fifth as his rear-end locked up and he had to be towed to the pits. Another hard-charger was Dave Hess. who started 18th and finished sixth in his Shaw chassis powered by Craiger Race Engines. In addition to his Mom and Dad, the Hess Garage and Salvage is a main sponsor. With help from his crew of Mike, Mark and Jimmy Rumba, changes were made after winning the B-Main and they went back to the heat race set up using Genesis Shocks. Other credit on his car goes to Beacon Lubricants, Plyler Overhead Doors, Brozell Construction and Matt Tenbery Flooring.

Rounding out the top ten it was Rick Aukland, Kenny Wallace, Todd Neiheiser and Kyle Bronson.

Heat race winners were Allen Weisser,Chad Kinder, Wayne Hammond, Hensley, Neiheiser, Landers, Aukland and Joey Jenson. The B Mains advanced Conley, Austin Sanders, Curt Gelling and Peyton Taylor from the first one, then Hess, Wing, Elliott Despain and Daryl Herbert from the second.

A field of 62 drivers showed up from as far away as Minnesota to battle in warm, sunny Florida on a record-setting East Bay surface that local driver Kyle Bronson used to break a track record set by Dave Cain on 2/14/08. Bronson’s time of 16.692 will now be the new mark.

There were two flips during the night. Buzzie Reutimann flipped at the flagstand while running sixth on lap three of the second B-Main and Wayne Hammond flipped in turn one in a four-car incident on lap 15 of the A-Main.. Both drivers were OK, but their cars were severly damaged.

Thanks, Jean Lynch for East Bay Raceway Park

STATS – OPEN WHEEL MODIFIEDS – EAST BAY RACEWAY PARK – THURSDAY, 2/3/11

Qualifying Results:
1. 40B Kyle Bronson – 16.692; 2. 22S Chad Kinder – 16.753; 3. 14C Corey Conley – 16.911; 4. 33 Jeff Mathews – 17.043; 5. 777 Jared Landers – 17.092; 6. 3F Rob Fuqua – 17.116; 7. 36 Kenny Wallace – 17.232; 8. 2 Devin Dixon – 17.311; 9. 33X Rodney Wing – 17.326; 10. 66H Wayne Hammond – 17.347; 11. 47 Bill Howard – 17.361; 12. 38 Jeff Bland, Jr. – 17.362; 13. 14 Adam William – 17.363; 14. 64 Austin Sanders – 17.386; 15. 01 Vic Vena – 17.389; 16. 22 Dale Kelley – 17.401; 17. 9M Dale Mathison – 17.410; 18. 03 Rick Hensley – 17.410; 19. 25 Butch Weisser – 17.448; 20. 00 Buzzie Reutimann – 17.480; 21. 2A Rick Aukland – 17.484; 22. 72 Todd Neiheiser – 17.501; 23. 83B Perry Brown – 17.502; 24. 44H Dave Hess, Jr. – 17.533; 25. Z1 Zac Oedewaldt – 17.543; 26. 6 Daryl Herbert – 17.564; 27. 9 Roger Crouse – 17.574; 28. 01T Peyton Taylor – 17.584; 29. D00 Stanley Donahoo – 17.584; 30. 18 Dave McWilliams – 17.616; 31. 28M Frank Marshall – 17.672; 32. 26 Bobby Gierke – 17.720; 33. 8M Matt Miller – 17.763; 34. 25W Allen Weisser – 17.805; 35. 75E Elliott Despain – 17.840; 36. 144 Anthony Kinkade – 17.847; 37. 155 Jimmy Payne – 17.878; 38. 129 Rob Penny – 17.889; 39. 21 Joey Jenson – 17.955; 40. 05 Greg Johnson – 17.993; 41. 96G Curt Gelling – 18.009; 42. 11 Adam Colley – 18.031; 43. 271 Dakotah Stephens – 18.063; 44. 83 Joe Waba – 18.085; 45. 100 Reed Storley – 18.097; 46. 6B Dave Baldwin – 18.183; 47. 45 Bob Broking – 18.202; 48. D4 Dave Jamison – 18.408; 49. 5L Larry Lambert – 18.409; 50. 3K Jeremy Kerzman – 18.456; 51. 44P Tim Powers – 18.516; 52. 9C John Carpenter – 18.648; 53. 55 David Orr – 18.791; 54. 45J Johnny Broking – 18.883; 55. 44T Joe Turner – 18.981; 56. 96H Dennis Haven – 18.993; 57. 6M Terry McClintock – 19.095; 58. 23 Terry Haven – 19.448; 59. 88 Thomas Braswell – 19.609; 60. 3X Kenny Abney – 20.159; 61. 58 Matt Fetterhoff – 36.759; 62. 4W Rick Weekly – NT

1st Heat – 1)Allen Weisser 2)Bill Howard 3)Austin Sanders 4)Dave McWilliams 5)Jimmy Payne 6)Reed Storley 7)Tim Powers 8)Rick Weekly

2nd Heat – 1)Chad Kinder 2)Kyle Bronson 3)Peyton Taylor 4)Dale Mathison 5)Frank Marshall 6)Bobby Gierke 7)Thomas Braswell 8)Dennis Haven

3rd Heat – 1)Wayne Hammond 2)Zac Oedewaldt 3)Adam William 4)Matt Miller 5)Curt Gelling 6)Dave Baldwin 7)Dakotah Stephens 8)Jeremy Kerzman

4th Heat – 1)Rick Hensley 2)Devin Dixon 3)Butch Weisser 4)Corey Conley 5)Anthony Kinkade 6)Roger Crouse 7)Stanley Donahoo 8)Dave Jamison

5th Heat – 1)Todd Neiheiser 2)Jeff Mathews 3)Dave Hess, Jr. 4)Rodney Wing 5)Daryl Herbert 6)Perry Brown 7)Bob Broking 8)Matt Fetterhoff

6th Heat – 1)Jared Landers 2)Kenny Wallace 3)Elliott Despain 4)Buzzie Reutimann 5)Larry Lambert 6)Terry Haven 7)Terry McClintock

7th Heat – 1)Rick Aukland 2)Dale Kelley 3)Adam Colley 4)Jeff Bland, Jr. 5)Johnny Broking 6)Joe Turner 7)John Carpenter

8th Heat – 1)Joey Jenson 2)Rob Fuqua 3)Rob Penny 4)Vic Vena 5)Greg Johnson 6)Joe Waba 7)David Orr
8)Kenny Abney

1st B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A inside row) – 1)Corey Conley 2)Austin Sanders 3)Curt Gelling 4)Peyton Taylor 5)Dave McWilliams 6)Butch Weisser 7)Frank Marshall 8)Roger Crouse 9)Stanley Donahoo 10)Jimmy Payne 11)Matt Miller 12)Adam William 13)Anthony Kinkade 14)Dave Baldwin 15)Dakotah Stephens 16)Reed Storley 17)Tim Powers 18)Bobby Gierke 19)Dave Jamison 20)Thomas Braswell 21)Jeremy Kerzman 22)Dale Mathison 23)Dennis Haven 24)Rick Weekly DNS

2nd B – Main (Top 4 go to back of A outside row) – 1)Dave Hess, Jr. 2)Rodney Wing 3)Elliott Despain 4)Daryl Herbert 5)Adam Colley 6)Vic Vena 7)Rob Penny 8)Bob Broking 9)Perry Brown 10)Johnny Broking 11)Larry Lambert 12)Joe Waba 13)Joe Turner 14)Terry Haven 15)John Carpenter 16)Matt Fetterhoff 17)Terry McClintock 18)David Orr 19)Greg Johnson 20)Jeff Bland, Jr. 21)Buzzie Reutimann 22)Kenny Abney

A – Main (25 Laps) – 1)Jared Landers 2)Corey Conley 3)Rodney Wing 4)Rick Hensley 5)Devin Dixon 6)Dave Hess, Jr. 7)Rick Aukland 8)Kenny Wallace 9)Todd Neiheiser 10)Kyle Bronson 11)Joey Jenson 12)Austin Sanders 13)Chad Kinder 14)Dale Kelley 15)Bill Howard 16)Elliott Despain 17)Curt Gelling 18)Rob Fuqua 19)Zac Oedewaldt 20)Jeff Mathews 21)Allen Weisser 22)Wayne Hammond 23)Daryl Herbert 24)Peyton Taylor